MAXIMUS’ POV

“Your Majesty, stop looking at me like that—it wasn’t me,” Lucien said, his voice steady but tense. “I promise.”

He raised both hands slowly, palms open in surrender. The flickering firelight danced across his face, throwing uneasy shadows across the room.

For a long second, I didn’t say anything. I just stared at him—watched the tiny twitch in his jaw, the controlled rise and fall of his chest. I wanted to believe him. Goddess, I needed to believe him. But after what Soraya had said… how could I be sure anymore?

“Your Majesty,” Lucien said again, more carefully this time. “I swear it wasn’t me in that forest.”...